"Navigating Change" is a project focused on raising awareness and motivating people to change their attitudes and behaviors to better care for our islands and our ocean resources. The project is an educational partnership that includes private non-government organizations, state agencies and federal agencies that share a collective vision for creating a healthier future for Hawai`i and for our planet. This collaborative multi-agency effort aims to change behaviors by creating an awareness of the ecological problems we face and by making it relevant to the decisions that confront us in our daily lives.

In September 2003, PVS sailed Hokule`a along an ancient route to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to examine the cultural and biological wonders of this unique and rarely seen ecosystem. The "Ancestral" leg of our journey took us to the islands of Nihoa, where cultural protocols were performed to set the stage for the rest of the voyage.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) contain 9,124 square kilometers of coral reefs that account for 69% of all the coral reefs in the U.S. Here, in a nearly pristine environment, 10 small islands support millions of nesting seabirds and the breeding grounds for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal and the threatened green sea turtle. The reefs also provide essential habitat for several commercial fisheries and countless indigenous and endemic reef species, half of which exist nowhere else.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is a microcosm of island ecology where we can learn to manage and care for a pristine and fragile ecosystem and apply these lessons back to the main Hawaiian Islands. It also provides a basis for comparison of the health of our coral reefs back home. Hokule`a’s mission is to restore an ancient wisdom, the Hawaiian concept of malama  of caring for our land and sea to ensure a balance among all forms of life.